I want a good all-round build. And this is my first real run. (first time was for getting started) I don't pay much attention to companions.
This is my idea, but I want to hear your opinions.
S: 5
P: 5
E:5
C:7
I:7
A:5
L:6

And what skills are useful to tag?
What about the perks?

I used your advice and this is my build now:

S:6
P:5
E:5
C:1
I:7
A:9
L:7

Why is charisma so high?

Companions, speech, barter?

Those are pretty good SPECIAL stats. (Me personally I would knock Endurance down to 4 and increase strength to 6, Use implants to increase Endurance later on)

Guns, Repair and Speech are probably best for an all round character.

Do you have another option for new players?

Ah, I suppose yes that would be worthwhile.

What kind of character are you planning on going with?
I know you want a very rounded character but I mean do you want regular guns (rifles, shotguns, pistols), a sniper kind of playstyle, energy weapons and so on.

Problem with endurance at 4 is that you can only use 4 implants and using the endurance one does not allow you to have 5 inplants.

I suppose if you do plan on getting the strength implant with the power armour that gives you +2 to strength then it would be okay.

Endurance should be 5 at least. Since it basically gives you 1 point to 5 specials with implants.

If you don't plan on using VATS, then get a weapon skill (I suggest guns) up fairly high.

If you do plan on using VATS then you might want more agility.

I believe luck can be boosted up by 3 points, one from armour, one from headgear and one from the implant. So having 6 is okay for the main game but if you want to gamble get it up higher using the equipment.

Perception I never really found a use for. Even with 16 sneak or so and 5 perception, I could easily spot the enemies on the hud before they even saw me.

I suggest you get a good melee weapon at the start if you aren't the best with a gun, it really does help.

I play on PS3, and I still find it hard to aim without VATS, but maybe it can change.
I like sniping, and regular guns, no energy weapons for me.
I might want to reduce perception and boost agility.

I appreciate your info and I will keep it in mind.

Right, get a good melee weapon, like a sledgehammer (you can usually find one in the school in the starting town but not always), you can also steal the snooker cue from the bar where the girl with the dog is when her back is turned

Reason I say get a melee weapon is since you have trouble aiming outside of VATS, it's useful if the enemies get close.

Will you be using companions?

If not, you can drop your charisma a bit.

I understand you want to snipe so go with guns. It really does give you the best set of weapons, you have your pistols, rifles, sniper rifles, pistols, sub-machine guns and so on.
You don't need your melee skill up too high but I think tagging it at the start will be okay.
Secondly, get repair. It can help you a lot at the start and money wise in the end game. Since high repair means less overall loot to carry around but also, you can repair weapons and sell them for higher values.

The game is kind of open ended, I mean even with a low gun skill you can still do okay with the rifle you get at the start from the girl but on a console it is kind of awkward.

Here's a hint about VATS though, use it just when you need to reload. Basically, you'll reload in VATS and you'll take less damage (usually). Since if you reload out of VATS, your enemy can probably fill you with bullets by the time it's done.

By wanting to be a sniper, do you mean just picking them off from long range or do you intend to sneak through buildings and what not? IF it's the latter, then you might want a sniper/stealth build.

One thing though, don't worry too much about skill checks in conversations, most times you can use food/outfits to raise skills and then pass the check.

Will drop Charisma.
And tag Repair, but I'm not sure about tagging melee.
Maybe also tag Stealth?

Really for a first timer leave strength, endurance, luck, charisma, intelligence at 5.
Put points in agillity and perception 2 each and then put the last point anywhere.

Tag Guns, speech and one of these science, medecine, repair, survival or lockpick.

Traits any will do but Good natured and wild wasteland have few / draw backs for a first time player.

This will give you a rounded character that can go in any direction to learn the ropes on.
Many take begining stats as a power build, but to be fair any build even a shocking one can become powerfull if you experiment and learn.
That and by far the most easy kills I've made have been with the more average joe builds due to being flexible.

Well you don't need to tag melee exactly. I did but you can make it without it being overly high I suppose.
Your build seems fine. Though I would use my first perk to raise strength to 6 with intense training.

As for perks get sillent running (this is something I needed in Fallout 3 since you have to genetly push the anolog stick to "walk" and I found it annoying).

The problem though is that stealth boys (improve your sneak vastly) are very rare. So you might want to get sneak up high.

Do you have a problem with using the wiki to find the locations of certain things? If not, then it might make your life a lot easier (since you can find things that boost sneak).

Secondly I think you should either keep a shotgun or a pistol (perhaps a machine/sub-machine gun too) in the case of close combat.

Although you can just use your melee weapon.

Now as for perks these are what I think you should go for an all around character (these do not include perks for the sniper playstyle since I haven't done that route in the game yet).

Intense training would be best at level 2 or perhaps Rapid Reload but as I said, go to VATS, reload and you should be able to avoid having to reload in combat outside of VATS.

Now at level 4 I highly urge you to take either Comprehension or Educated. Comprehension is okay, far as I understand it, you get the same number of skill points as Educated but with Educated you can choose where to put them. But Comprehension has got an additional advantage, the skill books are very limited but the skill magazines give you 20 skill points instead of just 10 with Comprehension. And also, you can buy the magazines from merchants.

Overall, I'd choose Educated though since you can choose where to put the points and with Comprehension you'd have to hunt down the skill books.

As for level 6 I have no idea.

Depending on how often you have weight problems, strong back can be good at level 8. Super Slam might be good too but personally, I'd go with Strong Back.

Not sure with level 10 do not get Here And Now! though, it is a waste of a perk.

At level 12 Silent Running if you find yourself getting caught too often from you running automatically

At level 14 Jury Rigging, it is an amazing money maker. Take note though, this might be taken instead of strong back, the reason is that since you can use more items to repair other items, you'll have less weight to carry overall.

Now I would personally choose Weapon Handling at level 16. But this might not be for you. See, with the implant*, a certain power armour and raising strength to 6 with intense training, you can get a total of 9 strength from a starting level of 5.

Okay implants are based on the eundurance you have, they can give you +1 to any SPECIAL and if you have 5 endurance you can only use 5. If you increase it to 6 with the endurance implant, you can still only use 4 more.

Level 18 onwards, at level 20 I am also not sure but as far as I know the ninja perk is broken (it doesn't work right).

Wow, thanks!

So, I reduce str to 5 but what should I boost with 1?

Possibly go ahead and add the last point to Intelligence, with more points to put into things at each level up, it can make your life easier in those early levels.

More Endurance for implant?

The intelligence would not hurt tbh.

I'm a little biased against taking higher intelligence myself.

But this is your character and it will let you add more points to skills, which you can try out to see if you like thir effects.

Other than that dex is allways quite good as a high stat, or even luck if you're not sure about the game world.

Don't worry too much about perks, there are some great ones and some usefull ones but as they tie into skills alot you should see which ones to take yourself.

My favourites on a gun build however are rapid reload and shotgun surgeon,

Step one go to a site with all the perks and make a list of what you want and the stat reqs.

Now make sure for early ones you have that stat and for later ones you have at least that stat -1 so an implant will get you that perk.

There are no wrong choices just pick what you wana see.

Now weaponry.. your on ps3 so id strongly suggest not getting energy as bad aiming ability and spendy ammo is bad...

So id suggest guns. You do NOT need much repair skill with guns so DONT tag it. You only need enough for repair kits.

On barter id suggest not as most barter speech options make you sound like a total gerk.

On science.. dont take it unless you want to sound all techie.

Of a choice between melee and unarmed as backup weapons go with unarmed as they weigh less and can be smuggled alot easier;/ That second part realy makes casinos easier..

Do you want to be kind conciderate and generaly chatty or do you just wana deal with whiney people via massive amounts of hot lead? If chatty then get charisma and speech if lead then dont.

Even if you just wana ignore whiney emo people wanting to gab just ignore speech and thus charisma.

On strength do you hoard or do you travel light? If you hoard get 9 strength if travel light get enough strength for the one kind of gun you realy wana play with most.

I decided to take just 1 charisma because I can have good speech without it, and I don't care about good companions.
But how many times should I use intense training?
Maybe 4 Endurance +2 times intense training?

If you dump *any* stat to 1 you should have plenty of points to play with; no need for intense training IMO.

Right now am still on my first character (a.k.a the Test Character) and deeply sad with choices I made. I chose Here and Now (Bad) Heavy Handed (am a gun guy) Swift Learner (all your doing is leveling up faster) and some stupid minor things. I plan on making a new character after I hit Level 30 with my test.

On subject, Intelligence would be good then. Best of luck on your future endeavors.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_perks

That has all the perks on it.

It also can say why some perks are good and some are not.

Playing on a console really makes it harder since you need to be even wiser.

That said if you do drop your Charisma to 1

I'd go with

S 5 (use intense training to make this 6 if you have no desire to pick a level 2 perk)*.
E 6
P 5
C 1
Int 8
A 5
Luck 5

This leaves you with 4 points. Firstly, do not raise any stat to level 10. You should raise it to nine at the most. you can get an implant to make it to level 10.

Now, the thing as I said before, is that the number of your endurance is equal to the number of implants you can use. Remember, even if you use the endurance implant to make it level 7 (if you start with 6 "hard points" (your base number before increases from implants, food, gear, etc)) you still can only use 5 implants more.

So I'd suggest you look at the perks page I listed, then look at what you need for what perk and what perk you want to pick. Then get the stats up.
Keep in mind, that if you have strength at level 1, you melee weapon skill will be lower than if you had it at level 10. So you should keep a good idea of what your overall skill points will be when you need them.

Oh and after about level 20, new perks won't be available, by that I mean you won't see new perks for you to pick (unless you get the requirments) so if there are 4 perks that you want level 14 say, you should be able to have them all by level 30.